Jodie Whittaker as Doctor Who: new series goes back to basics for first-time viewers

Doctor Who is returning to simple storylines that children and newcomers can understand, Jodie Whittaker has said, after convoluted plotting led to a ratings decline.

The series returns to BBC One next month with Jodie Whittaker as the first female Timelord. The last series, starring Peter Capaldi, saw audiences drop below five million, down from the nine million who watched his debut.

The new incarnation of the show will cater for viewers who have never watched it before.

“We absolutely want to engage with the eight-year-olds and the 80-year-olds, whether they are into Doctor Who or not. Because we’re saying: if you’re not, you don’t need to know everything but I bet you’ll enjoy it,” Whittaker said.

“You don’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge.”

Recent series were criticised for complex plots and lengthy story arcs, but the new show will have neither.

Chris Chibnall, the new showrunner, said of the first episode, which begins on October 7: “It’s a massively accessible jumping-on point for anybody who has never seen the series, for anybody who has been there since An Unearthly Child [the first episode in 1963], for anybody who has drifted away.

“You can come to it with no knowledge. But, equally, if you have got knowledge, we will pay that off as well.”

Speaking during a breaking in filming at studios in Cardiff, Chibnall said Doctor Who must compete with big-budget US shows.

“This is Doctor Who in the era of Netflix. You’ve got to keep up with Black Mirror, with all the DC shows in the US,” he said. His solution is to “tell great stories with great actors, and tell stories that feel resonant to people’s lives.

“I mean, Doctor who is the greatest single idea anybody’s ever had in the history of television so just make that, really, and make it to the best of your ability.”

On becoming the first female Doctor Who, Whittaker said: “It’s 2018. Women are not a genre, we are just the other half of the population. So to see us doing things shouldn’t be such a surprise, but I know it is because I watch TV and film and things like that.”

Asked if her casting could pave the way for a female James Bond, Whittaker laughed: "I bloody well hope so! If this isn't the start of something becoming more normal - to see women leading shows - then it's really depressing...

"I just think now is the time to show children, boys and girls, that your role models and your heroes on the screen don't all look the same."

Whittaker helped to choose the Doctor’s new look, and said it contains cryptic clues. “There is a reason for every single little thing. The colour of every single part of the outfit, every stripe, every bit of lining - everything is a choice, and at some point you may know.”